406 



B E E. 



Bee. hives, and substituted for each a queen taken at the 

 /~~ ' moment she came to maturity. He then divided the 

 hives into two (ind having removed all the 



drones from those of the first class, he adapted a 

 glass tube to the entrance, so narrow that no drone 

 could pass, but large enough to admit common ! 

 The whole ilr allowed to remain in the hi 



of the second class, and more were even introduced. 

 ;ubc, also, too small for their exit, though of 

 sufficient -capacity for common bees, was likewise 

 adapted to tiie entrance of the hives. This experi- 

 ,t was carefully made; and, to the author's great 

 surprise, all the queens remained sterile ; thus prov 

 that a female confined to her hive would continue 

 barren while amidst a seraglio of males. 

 Sexual The result of successive experiments, diversified in 



union takes every possible manner, and made with much skill and 

 place. indefatigable labour, proved, that the generation of 



bees is effected by the union of the sexes, as in most 

 other species of insects, and the larger terrestrial ani- 

 mals. But it is never in the interior of the hive that 

 it takes place. The queen, to accomplish it, must 

 issue forth from her dwelling the only occasion, ex- 

 cept -one, on which she leaves it ; and although her 

 junction with the drone h5 not yet been witnessed 

 by human eyes, it is supposed to happen high in the 

 air. In illustrating the generation of bees, the au- 

 thor whom we have already named concluded, that if 

 queens were obliged to go out for impregnation, it 

 would be at the warmest time of the day, as the males 

 then leave the hive. On the 29th of June, a hive, 

 containing a virgin queen five days old, was made the 

 subject of observation. The sun had shone from his 

 rising ; the air was very warm ; and, at eleven in the 

 for males began to leave the neighbouring 



hives. The entrance of the one containing the queen 

 was then enlarged, and the bees entering and depart- 

 ; narrowly observed. The males appeared, and 

 immediately took flight ; and soon afterwards the 

 young queen came to the entrance. Before quitting 

 the board, she traversed it, and brushed her belly 

 with her hind legs, during which she received no at- 

 tention cither from the males or workers. Taking 

 flight, she again approached the hive as if to examine 

 the place of her departure, that she might recognise 

 it. Next, describing circles ten or twelve feet above 

 the surface of the earth, she rapidly rose in the air, 

 and was soon out of sight. The observer and an as- 

 sistant hastened to contract the entrance of the hive, 

 and in seven minutes the young queen returned. No 

 external marks of fecundation being visible, she was 

 allowed to enter the hive. In a quarter of an hour 

 she came to the entrance, and brushing herself as be- 

 fore, took flight. Returning to examine the hive, she 

 departed, rising so high that the observers soon lost 

 sight of her. Twenty-seven minutes elapsed before 

 her second CKCursion terminated ; but now she was in 

 a very different condition from that in which she ap- 

 peared after the first; for she exhibited the most un- 

 equivocal evidence of sexual union, by bringing along 

 with her the genital organs of the male by which she 

 had been impregnated. And here a wonderful devia- 

 tion from the ordinary laws of nature ensues; the 

 male loses his organs in copulation, and thus sacrifices 



his own life in perpetuating his race. Tn two days the *!<*. 

 belly of the queen was swollen ; and, on investiga- " " 



tion, she proved to have laid nearly an hundred eggs 

 in the workers' cells. For some reason, which is un- 

 known to us, the sexual union cannot be accomplish- 

 ed in the hive ; and the object of the q ar- 

 ture being once fulfilled, she never again leaves it un- 

 less to conduct a swarm. 



Forty-six hours after impregnation the queen be- Singular 

 gins laying eggs, which will become workers ; and, effects of 

 provided impregnation takes place within the first retarded 



twenty days of her existence, thousands are produced im I? re S" 

 ' ,1 i i i , r nation, 



uninterruptedly during the succeeding eleven months. 



Then she commences laying eggs which will be drones. 

 But should matters be otherwise arranged ; should 

 her impregnation, either from constraint or accident, 

 be delayed more than twenty days bevond her own 

 complete metamorphosis, a singular alteration takes 

 place. She begins laying within forty-six hours of 

 its occurrence, but no eggs excepting those from 

 which drones proceed ; nor will she lay any other 

 kind during her whole life. A nice and difficult pro- 

 blem thence arises, which analogy does not aid us to 

 solve. How is the order of nature so Completely in- 

 serted by retarded impregnation ? The eggs produ- 

 cing males require, in the natural state, eleven monl 

 to attain maturity ; but, under the effects of this ac- 

 cidental occurrence, they reach perfection in forty-sis 

 hours. Those eggs which should have preceded them, 

 during eleven months, in many thousands, totally dis- 

 appear, and from no other sensible cause. Some vi- 

 tiation has ensued, which, while it destroys the vita- 

 lity of which the workers' eggs are susceptible, ope- 

 rates such a change, as to bring those of the males 

 eleven months earlier to maturity. On' reflecting that 

 a simple copulation is sufficient to impregnate all the 

 eggs which a queen will lay in two years, or, perhaps, 

 the whole that she will lay during her life, the ques- 

 tion becomes still more embarrassing. Without be- 

 ing aware of the cause of such peculiarities, some ob- 

 servers have maintained, that there were certain spe- 

 cies of queens, from which no description of bees, ex- 

 cepting drones, would be generated ; which they 

 justly determined was extremely injurious to their re- 

 spective colon) 



The laying of a queen is retarded, or altogether Eggs. 

 interrupted, by cold ; and one impregnated in the end 

 of October has been known to retain her eggs four 

 months and a half, owing to the intervention of win- 

 ter. This queen) during March and April, laid above 

 3000 eggs, producing only"; and so very pro- 



lific are these insects, that a single queen may be the 

 mother of 12,000 bees, or metre, in the spajct of two 

 months, which is laying at the rate of 200 eggs dai- 

 ly. The queen beti re depositing an egg, examines 

 whether the cell is clean and fit to receive it, and also 

 suitable to its future state ; for queens, males, and 

 workers, have cells peculiarly adapted to their kind, 

 and the queen, by anticipation, seems aware which of 

 these will proceed from the egg she deposits. Those 

 producing workers are deposited in common horizon- 

 tal cells ; but the cells containing the eggs which will 

 be transformed into queens are large and rudely con- 

 structed with a great quantity of wax, and hang per- 



